Method and apparatus of providing a mobile phone notification service

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus are disclosed for transmitting notifications to customers. One example method may include identifying a notification event associated with a customer via a customer management module and retrieving a customer record. The method may also include identifying a customer&#39;s mobile device via a voice channel preference indicating the mobile device in the customer preference record, and transmitting the notification event to the customer&#39;s mobile device based on the voice channel preference.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation from U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/279,526, filed Nov. 24, 2011, and entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS OFPROVIDING A MOBILE PHONE NOTIFICATION SERVICE”, which is incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a method and apparatus of providing visualchannel notifications to a user during a notification procedure.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Consumers seek to maximize the use of their time. Electronic devicessuch as personal digital assistants (PDAs) mobile telephones and otherInternet connectivity devices (“mobile stations”) provide users withmobile access to information resources. Other common services providedto users include subscription data services, such as cable television,high-speed Internet services and digital telephone services.

Digital services, such as voice services, mobile data services, andtelevision content services provide integrated data services to the enduser. In addition to the increased availability of a mobile station,certain communication protocols and communication procedures arebecoming increasingly popular and easy to implement, such as, textmessaging, which may use short messaging service (SMS), multimediamessaging service (MMS), instant messaging (IM) and/or any other freeformat text application.

Conventionally, users relied strictly on calendar applicationsintegrated with e-mail and their mobile devices. However, since usersmay be engaged with any of the above-noted services at any given time,all of these services may provide notifications or reminders to the userto maintain an interactive environment customized to the users needs andpreferences.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One embodiment of the present invention may include a method includingidentifying a notification event associated with a customer via acustomer management module and retrieving a customer record. The methodmay also include identifying a customer's mobile device via a voicechannel preference indicating the mobile device in the customerpreference record, and transmitting the notification event to thecustomer's mobile device based on the voice channel preference.

Another example embodiment may include an apparatus including aprocessor configured to identify a notification event associated with acustomer via a customer management module and retrieving a customerrecord. The apparatus may also identify a customer's mobile device via avoice channel preference indicating the mobile device in the customerpreference record. The apparatus may also include a transmitterconfigured to transmit the notification event to the customer's mobiledevice based on the voice channel preference.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example logic diagram of a communication networksystem according to example embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a logic diagram of a content delivery and feedbacksystem according to example embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example instruction video delivery notificationsystem according to example embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example customer notification system according toexample embodiments.

FIG. 5A illustrates a flow diagram of an example method according toexample embodiments.

FIG. 5B illustrates a flow diagram of another example method accordingto example embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates a network entity that may include memory, softwarecode and other computer processing hardware, according to exampleembodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

It will be readily understood that the components of the presentinvention, as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein,may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of differentconfigurations. Thus, the following detailed description of theembodiments of a method, apparatus, and system, as represented in theattached figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the invention asclaimed, but is merely representative of selected embodiments of theinvention.

The features, structures, or characteristics of the invention describedthroughout this specification may be combined in any suitable manner inone or more embodiments. For example, the usage of the phrases “exampleembodiments”, “some embodiments”, or other similar language, throughoutthis specification refers to the fact that a particular feature,structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodimentmay be included in at least one embodiment of the present invention.Thus, appearances of the phrases “example embodiments”, “in someembodiments”, “in other embodiments”, or other similar language,throughout this specification do not necessarily all refer to the samegroup of embodiments, and the described features, structures, orcharacteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or moreembodiments.

In addition, while the term “message” has been used in the descriptionof embodiments of the present invention, the invention may be applied tomany types of network data, such as packet, frame, datagram, etc. Forpurposes of this invention, the term “message” also includes packet,frame, datagram, and any equivalents thereof. Furthermore, while certaintypes of messages and signaling are depicted in exemplary embodiments ofthe invention, the invention is not limited to a certain type ofmessage, and the invention is not limited to a certain type ofsignaling.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example logic diagram of a communication networksystem according to example embodiments of the present invention.Referring to FIG. 1, an end user notifications recipient 100 may beoperating a mobile station or mobile phone 130. The recipient may alsobe operating a television 126, landline phone 128, computer deviceportal 134, specialty device 118, such as a countertop or tablet device138 and/or a watch or wearable device 140. Any or more of thesecommunication devices may be communicating wirelessly with acommunications network, which may be the Internet 124, a private networkand/or a mobile telephony network.

In operation, the communication network of FIG. 1 processesnotifications, which are sent to the end user 100 at the appropriatetime(s). The notifications may be sent as a voice call 108, email 110,SMS/MMS message 112, mobile application 114 (e.g., mobile smartphoneapplication), or a web site update 116 or related link. The website 116provides an electronic medial record EMR secure vault 132, a portal 134and/or a social media inbox 136. For example, a text message may be sentas a notification across a cellular or wireless communication network toa remote application server. Certain text messaging protocols may beused, such as, mobile short message service (SMS), multimedia messageservice (MMS), and instant messaging (IM), or any other related textapplication. The communication link may include transferring informationover communication links, such as wireless networks (e.g., GSM, CDMA,3G, 4G, etc.), wireline networks (e.g., landline telephony), Internet,satellite/cable networks, or any other data medium using standardcommunication protocols.

Customer management system (CMS) 102, notifications management system(NMS) 104 and multi-channel notifications delivery platform (MC-NDP) 106operate together to manage customer records, notifications and preferreduser delivery options. For example, the CMS 102 may operate bymaintaining a customer application which manages reminders,notifications, preferences and scheduled delivery times based on variousparameters. For example, the CMS 102 provides an application that willkeep time records and execute customer notifications at theappropriately scheduled times. Customer records may be maintained via acustomer record database that stores user profile information, EMR dataand related user information.

In operation, when a customer is setup to receive a notification, theCMS 102 will retrieve the customer record from the customer database.The customer may have a time sensitive notification setup to bedelivered to the customer at a scheduled time. The informationassociated with the notification may be cross-referenced to ensure thecustomer or notifications recipient 100 receives all of the necessaryinformation needed and at the appropriate time(s). The NMS 104 may thenprepare the notification for delivery based on customer specificpreferences. For instance, the user may specify delivery preferences viahis or her mobile phone 130 by text message, digital cable TV 126 bymessage display and/or by additional communication devices. The NMS 104may retrieve the user preferences from a record or file stored in arecipient preference information (RPI) data store 150.

The NMS 104 may receive the notification data from the CMS 102 andretrieve user preferences for customizing the notification delivery.Next, the delivery platform 106 may receive a forwarded messageindicating the notification and the corresponding user preferences. Theuser preferences stored in the RPI data store 150 may be predeterminedpreferences that are setup when a customer fills-out paper work orelectronic forms at an initial doctor appointment, for an insurancecompany, etc., which are linked to the customer's EMR records. At thispoint, the user may have specified how he or she desires to be contactedand how they desire to provide feedback regarding certain health relatednotifications.

The delivery platform 106 may communicate with all various differentcommunication platforms, such as cellular, Internet, PSTN, etc. Thecustomer preferences may be used to select one or more communicationmediums or channels for providing the notification to the user. Once theuser preferences have been identified by the delivery platform 106, thenotification message may be transmitted to the customer recipient 100via his or her preferred communication device.

FIG. 2 illustrates a logic diagram of a content delivery and feedbacksystem according to example embodiments of the present invention.Referring to FIG. 2, like references and numerals refer to likecomponents illustrated throughout the disclosure. As may be observed, acaller ID mapping service 120 and video content library 122 may be usedduring the notification and feedback procedure. For instance, the callerID mapping service 120 may map the notification data to a serviceprovider or entity name which is displayed on the user device (see FIG.3). This provides the customer with instant knowledge of who is tryingto notify the customer and for what purpose.

In FIG. 2, the customer recipient 100 has received notification data viahis or her mobile phone 130 from a voice call platform 108. The customer100 may have specified ahead of time that the contact preference is by avoice call 108 type of notification, which will attempt to call thecustomer's phone number for a home phone (not shown), mobile phone 130or both. Once a notification is communicated to the customer, feedbackmay be required in order to ensure the safe delivery of the notificationand to indemnify the notification service that active measures weretaken and the customer confirmed that the message was received. Forinstance, a user may submit a response by dialing a number on his or herphone (DTMF), returning an email, selecting a web link, returning a textmessage, selecting a button on his or television remote control, etc.Alternatively, the customer may elect to respond by asking foradditional information. For instance, the customer 100 may ask foradditional information regarding the content of the notification byaccessing the video content library 122 to retrieve a video that isrelated to the notification to educate the customer about the purpose ofthe notification and answer certain frequently asked questions (FAQs).For example, if the customer has a scheduled procedure (i.e.,colonoscopy, vasectomy, etc.), the customer may be reminded to stopeating, take a pill, etc. The customer in turn may be nervous orconcerned and may want to obtain additional information. The informationmay be forwarded to the customer as an informational video that answersthe majority of FAQs asked by customers for that particular topic area.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example mobile device notification systemaccording to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 3, a customer 200may be operating any of the example recipient devices 201 (datainterface phone), 202 (cellular phone) and 203 (smartphone). Thecustomer 200 may be setup to receive voice reminders which arecommunicated to their recipient device 201-205. In the case of asmartphone 205, a notification application may be separate and linked tovideo presentation options and calendar options to ensure that thenotifications are received and that additional smartphone options, suchas video players and calendar functions, etc., are cross-correlated withthe notification application.

A customer 200 may receive the initial notification and receive anoption to request additional information, such as video content andrelated instructions. The video content 210 may be received a played ona smartphone video application which may be viewed in full-screen,paused, skipped, etc. The video content 210 may also contain referencesto similar videos, calendar updating options, web links, etc. The usermay view the video and provide additional feedback to the notificationsystem that the content has been received and observed. Upon receiving arequest for a video, the video content server 220 may reference a calleridentification database 208 to obtain the information necessary tocorrelate the video content 210, the customer 200 and the notificationentity (medical insurance company, health care provider, etc.). Thevideo may then be sent to the customer 200 for informational purposes.

The video content server 220 may transmit a pre-recorded video to theuser to educate him about the vasectomy procedure and relatedinformation. Additional options presented to the customer 200 mayinclude setting-up another appointment at the doctor's office,requesting a phone call from the doctor's office or even requestingemergency services. Given the severity of the customer's profile ormedicinal regiment, emergency medical services may be automaticallycalled on behalf of the customer if the user does not respond with acertain amount of time.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example customer notification system according toexample embodiments. Referring to FIG. 4, in order to delivernotifications to customers, the customer management system or device(s)is configured to identify a notification event associated with acustomer. The notification event may be identified by a customermanagement system device by accessing a database and retrieving anotification event file used to store notification events for allcustomers. When delivering notifications to customers, the customermanagement system or device may be configured for identifying anotification event associated with a particular customer. Thenotification event may be identified by a customer management systemdevice by accessing a database and retrieving a notification event fileused to store notification events for all customers.

Customer notification system 400 includes a customer informationdatabase 440, a notifications management module 410, a customermanagement module 420 and a multi-channel notifications delivery module430. Each of the modules or engines may be part of one computer-basedprocessing device, such as a computer or server configured to performprocessing and notification delivery operations. The customernotification system may also include more than one device incommunication over a network communication system.

One example of the operation of the notification system 400 may includeidentifying a notification event associated with a customer via acustomer management module 420 and retrieving a customer record from acustomer information database 440. The operation of the system 400 mayalso include identifying a customer's mobile device via a voice channelpreference indicating the mobile device in the customer preferencerecord via a notification management module 410. The notification eventmay be transmitted to the customer's mobile device based on the voicechannel preference(s) of the customer and the multi-channelnotifications delivery module 430, which selects the particular channelused to contact the customer.

Continuing with the same example, the system 400 may forward theidentified notification event to the notification management module 410,which retrieves the customer preference record and creates a deliverysetup configuration used to initiate communication with the customer.The notification event may be one or more of a doctor appointment,medical procedure, a recurring reminder (“take your pill”) and aneducational data segment (“preparation for a vasectomy”). The customer'spreference record may include at least one of a communication devicetype preference (telephone, mobile phone, etc.) and a message typepreference (voice call vs. text message, vs. e-mail, etc.). Contactingthe customer may also include transmitting an alert to the customer'smobile device via a voice call platform and retrieving a calleridentification (ID) from a caller ID database. The customer may also beprovided with an option to receive a video message based on theretrieved caller ID information indicating the user's identificationinformation, the video content information, the notification managerinformation, etc. The video that is transmitted to the customer may bewholly or partially based on content of the notification event(vasectomy reminder=vasectomy preparation video). The customer mayconfirm that the video was received, observed and/or understood. Thesystem 400 may receive a confirmation message from the customer that thevideo message was received.

The notification(s) may be stored in the notifications management module410 which is configured to store data files corresponding tonotification types, dates, customers and corresponding to variousdifferent business clients subscribed to have such notification servicesdelivered to their respective clients. When a notification is scheduledto be delivered to a particular customer, the customer informationdatabase 440 may provide information regarding the customer's personalstatus, contact preferences and other customer-specific informationstored in an EMR record database file or files (e.g., name, condition,age, health status (severe, stable, healthy) etc.). The notification maytrigger the retrieval of a customer preference record identifying thecustomer's contact preferences. The customer's contact preferences maybe retrieved from the customer's record in the customer informationdatabase 440 and forwarded to the multi-channel notifications deliverymodule 430 for delivery medium selection purposes. The system 400 mayperform contacting the customer and providing the notification event tothe customer based on at least one of the customer's contact preferences(e.g., cell phone, home phone, push e-mail, text message, voice mail,etc.).

The notification event may require one or more notifications and one ormore forms of feedback to ensure that the content of the notificationhas been properly relayed to the customer. One notification event mayinclude multiple different portions of information that must becommunicated to a customer. The notification event may also requirevarious different feedback responses after transmitting thenotifications to the customer. The notification event may be forwardedto a notifications management module 410 which retrieves the customerpreference record and creates a delivery setup configuration used toinitiate communication with the customer. Examples of notificationevents include a doctor appointment, medical procedure, a recurringreminder (i.e., message “take your pill at 8 am!”) and an educationaldata segment (i.e., voice mail, video, text message, audio message,etc.). The data segment may include a message, such as a pill takingprocedure informing the customer to not eat before and after taking thepill, and not taking more than one pill at a time, etc.

The customer's contact preferences may include a specific communicationdevice type preference and a message type preference (e.g., cell phoneand text message). Contacting the customer may further include selectinga delivery medium based on the customer's contact preferences via themulti-channel notification and delivery module 430, and delivering thenotification to the customer communication device via the customer'spreferred contact preferences. Once the customer has received thenotification, the customer may respond to a request for feedback (i.e.,“did you understand the message”). The notification system 400 mayreceive a confirmation message from the customer communication devicethat the notification was acknowledged. The notification system 400 mayalso receive a request from the customer communication device foradditional information associated with the received notification. Inresponse, the notification system 400 may perform transmitting textdata, audio data, video data to the customer communication device (i.e.,cell phone, TV, home phone, etc.) responsive to receiving the requestfrom the customer communication device.

FIG. 5A illustrates a flow diagram of an example method of operationaccording to example embodiments of the present invention. Referring toFIG. 5A, the system may identify a notification event stored in thecustomer management system based on a time elapsed trigger or otherevent which invokes the notification event to mature into a livenotification event 502. The system may deliver the notification event tothe NMS to setup the notification communication procedure 504. The alerttype or preference associated with the target customer may be identifiedbased on predetermined contact preferences 506, and according to oneexample the “voice channel” may be identified as a communication choicepreference for the target customer and the system may determine thepresence of the customer's mobile device based on the voice channelpreference 508. Other customer contact preferences may specify aset-top-box device, cell phone, smartphone, e-mail account address, textmessage, home phone, voice mail, etc.

Continuing with the sample notification example, the customer's phonemay be alerted 510 via the voice call platform and the phone may invokea caller ID module to identify the caller and other information 512 andcreate a corresponding message as one comprehensive notification messagebased on both the identified entity and the original content of thenotification. The notification may then be provided to the customer. Themessage may be presented to the customer with an option for receiving acorresponding video based on the content of the notification event 514.The customer may elect to receive the video and the video may bereceived by the customer 516. The customer may provide feedback that thevideo was received and/or understood 518 and the feedback response maybe delivered to the NMS 520.

FIG. 5B illustrates another flow diagram of another example methodaccording to example embodiments of the present invention. Referring toFIG. 5B, the system may perform identifying a notification eventassociated with a customer via a customer management module andretrieving a customer record 550, and identifying a customer's mobiledevice via a voice channel preference indicating the mobile device inthe customer preference record 552. The system may also includetransmitting the notification event to the customer's mobile devicebased on the voice channel preference 554.

The operations of a method or algorithm described in connection with theembodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in acomputer program executed by a processor, or in a combination of thetwo. A computer program may be embodied on a computer readable medium,such as a storage medium. For example, a computer program may reside inrandom access memory (“RAM”), flash memory, read-only memory (“ROM”),erasable programmable read-only memory (“EPROM”), electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (“EEPROM”), registers, hard disk, aremovable disk, a compact disk read-only memory (“CD-ROM”), or any otherform of storage medium known in the art.

An exemplary storage medium may be coupled to the processor such thatthe processor may read information from, and write information to, thestorage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integralto the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in anapplication specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”). In the alternative,the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components.For example FIG. 6 illustrates an example network element 600, which mayrepresent any of the above-described network components of FIGS. 1-3.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, a memory 610 and a processor 620 may bediscrete components of the network entity 600 that are used to executean application or set of operations. The application may be coded insoftware in a computer language understood by the processor 620, andstored in a computer readable medium, such as, the memory 610.Furthermore, a software module 630 may be another discrete entity thatis part of the network entity 600, and which contains softwareinstructions that may be executed by the processor 620. In addition tothe above noted components of the network entity 600, the network entity600 may also have a transmitter and receiver pair configured to receiveand transmit communication signals (not shown).

While preferred embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed, it is to be understood that the embodiments described areillustrative only and the scope of the invention is to be defined solelyby the appended claims when considered with a full range of equivalentsand modifications (e.g., protocols, hardware devices, software platformsetc.) thereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: identifying, by a devicecontaining a processor and memory, a notification event associated witha customer; retrieving a customer preference record; identifying acustomer's mobile device via the customer preference record whichcomprises a communication device type preference indicating thecustomer's mobile device and a message type preference indicating aspecified type of message used to transmit notifications; andtransmitting the notification event to the customer's mobile devicebased on the communication device type preference and the message typepreference, wherein the notification event comprises an appointmentreminder and a media link option to a video message comprisingappointment related media instructions corresponding to the appointment.2. The method of claim 1, further comprising forwarding the notificationevent to a notification management module which retrieves the customerpreference record and creates a delivery setup configuration used toinitiate communication with the customer.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the notification event is a least one of a doctor appointment, amedical procedure, a recurring reminder and an educational data segment.4. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the notification eventassociated with the customer occurs via a customer management module. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein contacting the customer further comprisestransmitting an alert to the customer's mobile device via a voice callplatform.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: retrieving acaller identification (ID) from a caller ID database; and presenting anoption to the customer to receive a video message based on the retrievedcaller ID.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: transmitting avideo message to the customer based on content of the notificationevent; and receiving a confirmation message from the customer that thevideo message was received.
 8. An apparatus comprising: a processorconfigured to identify a notification event associated with a customer;retrieve a customer preference record; identify a customer's mobiledevice via the customer preference record which comprises acommunication device type preference that indicates the customer'smobile device and a message type preference that indicates a specifiedtype of message used to transmit notifications; and a transmitterconfigured to transmit the notification event to the customer's mobiledevice based on the communication device type preference and the messagetype preference, wherein the notification event comprises an appointmentreminder and a media link option to a video message comprisingappointment related media instructions the correspond to theappointment.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor isfurther configured to forward the notification event to a notificationmanagement module which retrieves the customer preference record andcreates a delivery setup configuration used to initiate communicationwith the customer.
 10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein thenotification event is a least one of a doctor appointment, a medicalprocedure, a reminder that recurs and an educational data segment. 11.The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the identified notification eventassociated with the customer occurs via a customer management module.12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the transmitter is furtherconfigured to transmit an alert to the customer's mobile device via avoice call platform.
 13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein theprocessor is further configured to retrieve a caller identification (ID)from a caller ID database, and present an option to the customer toreceive a video message based on the retrieved caller ID.
 14. Theapparatus of claim 13, wherein the transmitter is further configured totransmit a video message to the customer based on content of thenotification event, and receive a confirmation message from the customerthat the video message was received.
 15. A non-transitory computerreadable storage medium configured to store instructions that whenexecuted cause a processor to perform: identifying a notification eventassociated with a customer; retrieving a customer preference record;identifying a customer's mobile device via the customer preferencerecord which comprises a communication device type preference indicatingthe customer's mobile device and a message type preference indicating aspecified type of message used to transmit notifications; andtransmitting the notification event to the customer's mobile devicebased on the communication device type preference and the message typepreference, wherein the notification event comprises an appointmentreminder and a media link option to a video message comprisingappointment related media instructions corresponding to the appointment.16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15,wherein the processor is further configured to perform forwarding thenotification event to a notification management module which retrievesthe customer preference record and creates a delivery setupconfiguration used to initiate communication with the customer.
 17. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein thenotification event is a least one of a doctor appointment, a medicalprocedure, a recurring reminder and an educational data segment.
 18. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein theidentifying the notification event associated with the customer occursvia a customer management module.
 19. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 15, wherein contacting the customerfurther comprises transmitting an alert to the customer's mobile devicevia a voice call platform.
 20. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configuredto perform: retrieving a caller identification (ID) from a caller IDdatabase; and presenting an option to the customer to receive a videomessage based on the retrieved caller ID.